Ultra-thin gadolinium films with thicknesses between 8 and 101 A were deposited on AT-cut crystalline quartz substrates under ultra high vacuum conditions, and subsequently subjected to composition and morphologic characterization through X-ray photo-spectroscopy analysis and atomic force microscopy. Oxygen contamination is found on the samples, and its amount is estimated in terms of the thickness of an oxygen layer over the gadolinium films after subtracting the contribution to the XPS spectra of the underlying background. Atomic force microscope pictures provide evidence of having metal island films, with two growing regimes: the Volmer-Weber mode for the thinner films considered and the Stranski-Krastanov growing mode for the thicker ones. From evaluation of the sticking coefficient, the shape of the islands is approximated in terms of oblate spheroid caps and variation of the contact angle with film mass thickness is reported. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.